A GROUNDBREAKING system which has seen solved rates for shoplifting soar during an 18-month pilot programme is being extended across County Durham.
Supermarket giant Morrisons has signed up to use the SentrySIS digital justice system in all of its stores across the county, following the incredible success of a trial in Darlington where solved rates for shoplifting rose by 21 per cent.
The agreement between Durham Constabulary and Morrisons is the first step in extending the system to retailers across County Durham.
SentrySIS allows businesses to report shoplifting offences to the police electronically, saving police and retail staff an enormous amount of time.
Retailers can upload CCTV footage and digital witness statements direct to the police, without an officer having to travel to the store to conduct an initial investigation and retrieve the footage, which takes an average of two-and-a-half hours for each offence.
This frees up retail staff to prevent and deter further offending and frees up officers to apprehend the offender and ultimately prosecute or divert them away from further offending.
Since the trial was launched with Darlington’s 80 Shopwatch stores, SentrySIS is estimated to have saved the force 822 hours.
Sgt Adam Norris, Durham Constabulary’s operational lead for the project, said: “Even we have been surprised at just how successful it has been.
“Once upon a time we would hand over mugshots to Shopwatch volunteers and ask them to have a look out for them.
“Now this system allows us to update retailers with images of suspects in real time. It is much better: it gives the police an extra set of eyes and ears by allowing us to share intelligence with the retailers on who is wanted and who is active”.
After a successful trial at its Darlington store, Morrisons has now agreed to expand the programme to its supermarkets in Consett, Chester-le-Street, Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle, saving an estimated 500 hours of officer time each year.
Police hope that other retailers across County Durham will also join the expanded scheme in the coming months.
Detective superintendent Kevin Weir, force lead for the project, added: “We are working with a number of national retailers to get this system in place and expand across County Durham”.
